SINGLE: Run Toto Run – Hater

I picked this CD out as the one that was likely to be the worst single release this week. Any band tipped as one of XFM’s top 20 artists to watch in 2010 is likely to be shit. Just check out their list of the greatest songs of all time. Here are the top 5 as voted for by the listeners:

5. Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire

4. Muse – Knights of Cydonia

3. Oasis – Live Forever

2. Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor

1. The Killers – Mr Brightside.

One seems to refer to an STI. Another is fucking ridiculous, marking the sound of a band going light years up its own ass. Two are very good anthems. And one is a standard dance floor filler at best (you can work out which is which). But not one of them qualifies even nearly as the best song of all time.

In the case of Run Toto Run, though, I’m a long way wide of the mark. “Hater” is an excellent, pulsating pop single – the best I’ve been sent this week. The chorus stomps in with attitude and backed up with the best synth line line since Passion Pit’s “Fold In Your Hands” it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. They’re a Manchester band to so we can claim them as our own.

XFM I own you an apology. Though your top 1000 list could have been better chosen by deaf primates (I’m not sure it wasn’t), you occasionally know how to pick them. Run Toto Run, you’re a great band and I can’t wait to see you live some time.

I started out writing for the Manchester Evening News as a freelance journalist back in 2008. The idea that I would be given free access to music and gigs seemed somehow miraculous to me, and I proceeded to take full advantage of the situation. When the M.E.N. decided to constrict its coverage to only the very biggest bands, Simon Poole approached me with a plan to make sure that all the very talented musicians of this world that pass through and/or live in Manchester would not go unnoticed. As the New Releases editor here at Silent Radio Towers, it remains my proud duty to cast a critical eye over the music and reviews that come my way in a manner that is both supportive and fair. Above all, I strive to write as entertainingly possible. Favourite musicians include the Pixies, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Mercury Rev, Os Mutantes, The Knife, Beach House etc etc. I'm a firm believer that all genres (except nu-metal) contain music of great quality...